3.02.2008

The Nature of Free..

I took the boys to Planet Sub this morning after church. Kelsey was hustling around the house getting ready for Danie's baby shower so it looked like a good time for the menfolk to get out of Dodge.

We ordered our munchies and headed to the drink fountain. In front of me was a woman in her sixties. She was mixing a very strange drink (for a woman in her sixties) - a combo of Dr. Pepper, Diet Coke and who knows what. The kicker was that in filling up her Dr. Pepper, it was foaming up to the top of the cup...so she'd stop and let the foam break down, then add another squirt.

"FFFFFFFFTTTT" went the soda fountain.

Pause for foam decay.

"FFFFFFFFTTTT"

Pause again.

"FFFFFFFFTTTT""FFFFFFFFTTTT""FFFFFFFFTTTT"

Long pause as it foams over. She waits, knowing when it breaks down she'll still have 1/16 of an inch of cup left to fill.

In the worst way, I wanted to lean forward, place my lips gently near her diamond earring and shout "IT'S FREE, LADY! TAKE YOUR DRINK AND SIT DOWN! YOU CAN FILL IT UP AGAIN A HUNDRED TIMES BEFORE YOU LEAVE BECAUSE REFILLS ARE FREE! FREE! FREE! FREE!"

"FFFFFFFFTTTT"

Pause.

"FFFFFFFFTTTT"

Finally, with surface tension allowing her Dr. Pepper/Diet Coke to actually buldge above the rim of the cup, she took her tray and walked away (spilling some in the process, but by that time I'd grabbed the power spot in front of the fountain).

As I left Planet Sub, I couldn't help but think about people who are miserly with things that are inexhaustible. There will always be more Dr. Pepper, but the poor lady was petrified that this cup would be her last, so she was going to get all she could. She really could have got a half cup at a time and still had her fill because the fountain was going nowhere.

The applications are vast. Of course, most of them break down about the time I start yelling "IT'S FREE!" in her ear.